The Australian Ecology Research Award (AERA) [1] is an award presented by the Ecological Society of Australia [2] for a specific body of recent ecological work by a mid-career researcher. Initiated in 2008, the AERA was inspired, in part, by the Robert H. MacArthur Award of the Ecological Society of America. The AERA is not restricted to any particular sector, and aims to recognize outstanding ecological research; nominations of researchers from academia, and the public and private sector agencies are invited annually. [3]
The successful nominee is presented the AERA at the Annual Conference of the Ecological Society of Australia.
List of recipients is sourced from the Ecological Society of Australia website. [4]
2022: John Morgan
2021: Euan Ritchie
2020: Diana Fisher
2019: Menna Jones
2018: Angela Moles
2017: Richard Fuller
2016: Jane Elith
2015: Saul Cunningham
2014: Melodie McGeoch
2013: David Keith
2012: Chris Johnson
2011: Lesley Hughes
2010: Corey Bradshaw
2009: David Lindenmayer
2008: Bob Pressey
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. It holds an annual meeting at different locations in the USA and Canada. In addition to its publications and annual meeting, ESA is engaged in public policy, science, education, and diversity issues.
Eric Rodger Pianka was an American herpetologist and evolutionary ecologist.
Madhav Dhananjaya Gadgil is an Indian ecologist, academic, writer, columnist and the founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, a research forum under the aegis of the Indian Institute of Science. He is a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and the Head of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of 2010, popularly known as the Gadgil Commission.
Robert Eric Ricklefs is an American ornithologist and ecologist. He was the Curators' Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri, St. Louis from 1996 until August 2019.
Richard J. Hobbs FAA, is an Emeritus Professor, ARC former Australian Laureate Fellow and ecologist at the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and a Highly-Cited author who has written extensively in the areas of vegetation dynamics and management, ecosystem fragmentation, ecosystem rehabilitation and restoration, landscape ecology, and conservation biology. His research focused on managing ecosystems in a rapidly changing world and the implications of environmental and biological change for conservation and restoration.
The ECI Prize is a prize awarded annually from 1986 onwards to an ecologist distinguished by outstanding and sustained scientific achievements. It is awarded jointly by the International Ecology Institute, a non-profit organization of research ecologists based in Germany dedicated to fostering ecological knowledge and awareness, and the Otto Kinne Foundation.
The Robert H. MacArthur Award is a biennial prize given by the Ecological Society of America to ecologists for their pivotal contributions to their field. The acceptance speeches of many recipients have been given at the annual meeting of the society and subsequently published in the ESA's journal, Ecology.
William Robert Catton, Jr. was an American sociologist known for his scholarly work in environmental sociology and human ecology. More broadly, Catton is known for his 1980 book, Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, which is credited by younger generations of environmental scholars and activists as foundational for their own works.
The Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award, also known as the Seymour Cray Award, is an award given by the IEEE Computer Society, to recognize significant and innovative contributions in the field of high-performance computing. The award honors scientists who exhibit the creativity demonstrated by Seymour Cray, founder of Cray Research, Inc., and an early pioneer of supercomputing. Cray was an American electrical engineer and supercomputer architect who designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for decades, and founded Cray Research which built many of these machines. Called "the father of supercomputing," Cray has been credited with creating the supercomputer industry. He played a key role in the invention and design of the UNIVAC 1103, a landmark high-speed computer and the first computer available for commercial use.
The JC Williamson Award, is an lifetime achievement award presented annually as a sector of the Helpmann Awards, governed by Live Performance Australia.
Distinguished Professor David Lindenmayer,, is an Australian scientist and academic. His research focuses on the adoption of nature conservation practices in agricultural production areas, developing ways to improve integration of native forest harvesting and biodiversity conservation, new approaches to enhance biodiversity conservation in plantations, and improved fire management practices in Australia. He specialises in large-scale, long-term research monitoring programs in south-eastern Australia, primarily in forests, reserves, national parks, plantations, and on farm land.
Anurag Agrawal is an American professor of ecology, evolutionary biology, and entomology who has written over a 150 peer-reviewed articles, which earned him an h-index of 92. He is the author of a popular science book, Monarchs and Milkweeds from Princeton University Press, and is currently the James Alfred Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies at Cornell University.
Professor Jane Elith is an ecologist in the School of Botany at the University of Melbourne. She graduated from the School of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Melbourne in 1977. She specialises in ecological models that focus on spatial analysis and prediction of the habitat of plant and animal species. Following graduation, she was a research assistant and tutor for three years, and then spent the following 12 years raising her children. She returned to the University of Melbourne in 1992 and later commenced a part-time PhD in the School of Botany. She was awarded her PhD in 2002 on 'Predicting the distribution of plants'. Since then, she has been a research fellow in the School of Botany. She is currently an ARC Future Fellow and sits within the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis at the University of Melbourne.
William James Sutherland is the Director of Research at the University of Cambridge Department of Zoology, and was previously the Miriam Rothschild Professor of Conservation Biology. He has been the president of the British Ecological Society. He has been a Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge since 2008.
Dr. Anil Prakash Joshi is an environmentalist, green activist, and the founder of Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO), a Dehradun-based voluntary organization. His work majorly includes developing sustainable technologies that are ecology inclusive economy for ecosystem development. He has coined GEP, an ecological growth measure parallel to GDP. GEP has been accepted as a growth measure by the state of Uttarakhand on 5 June 2021. He was selected as the man of the year by Week Magazine in 2003. He is a recipient of the Jamnalal Bajaj Award and is an Ashoka Fellow. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2006, for his contributions to Indian society. He was also awarded Padma Bhushan, third highest civilian award in 2020 for environmental conservation in Uttarakhand. Dr. Joshi appeared in the Kaun Banega Crorepati, Karamveer episode aired on 25 December 2020.
Richard Kingsford is an environmental/biological expert and river ecologist. Much of his work has been undertaken with the Murray-Darling Basin wetlands and rivers covering approximately 70 percent of the Australian continent. He is the director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, a member of the Australian Government’s Environmental Flows Scientific Committee. He has received the following awards:
David A. Keith is an Australian botanist / ecologist who works in the areas of vegetation dynamics, population and ecosystem modelling, and fire. He is currently professor of botany at the University of New South Wales. His work has led to his being a member of the Australian Threatened Species Scientific Committee and the standards committees for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems.
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